From the (late) Internet Monk

"Gospel honesty. That's what Jesus gives us. The Good News that we aren't good enough to be Christians. The truth is that we are so messed up that we have no other choice but to be Christians." -- Michael Spencer, Mere Churchianity

Pascal on Adam & Jesus

Pensees # 590:

"Six days to create one, six ages to create the other. The six days which Moses represents for the creation of Adam are only an image of the six ages for creating Christ and the Church. If Adam had not sinned and Christ had not come, there would have been only one covenant and one age of man, and creation would have been represented as accomplished at a single moment."

From the (late) Internet Monk

"Religion is our negotiation with God to try to get his help in exchange for our good behavior. We promise to do what we're told, and we expect God to reward us. This is a straightforward business arrangement, and we fully expect it to work. Meanwhile, we talk about being God's child as if we're family. But in our performance-for-reward arrangement, things don't operate on grace. Under the rules of religion, God is kept at arms length and expected to be involved only to the degree that he gives us what we think we deserve." -- Michael Spencer, Mere Churchianity

Invitation to Contemplation

"Let us take Jesus at his word and we will be contemplatives at the heart of the world, because if we have faith then we are his permanent presence. In contemplation the soul draws directly from God's heart the graces that the active life has been entrusted to distribute. Our very existence is to be intimately bound to the living Christ within us. If we do not live in God's presence, we cannot keep going ... Our lives and our contemplation are one. It's not a question of doing but of being. In fact it is about the complete happiness of our spirit through the Holy Spirit who breathes God's fullness into us and send us into all creation as his own, personal message of love." -- Mother Teresa

disguise, falsehood & hypocrisy

The conclusion of Pascal's Pensees #978:

"Man is therefore nothing by disguise, falsehood, & hypocrisy, both in himself and with regard to others. He does not want to be told the truth. He avoids telling it to others, and all those tendencies, so remote from justice and reason, are naturally rooted in his heart."

Faith & Reason

From Pascal's Pensees #589:

"Faith is a gift of God. Do not imagine that we describe it as a gift of reason. Other religions do not say that about their faith. They offered nothing but reason as a way to faith, and yet it does not lead there."

December reading list

65. Systematic Theology, by Wayne Grudem
66. Worship Old & New (hc), by Robert E. Webber
67. The Cheater (ua), by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg
68. Penses (pb), by Blaise Pascal
69. Imager's Intrigue (ua), by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
70. Sand Sharks (ua), by Margaret Maron
71. Painted Ladies (ua), by Robert B. Parker
72. Guild of the Cowry Catchers, Book 2 (ua), by Abigail Hilton
73. Holy Bible, various translations

reason & passions

From Pascal's Pensees #621:
----------------------------
Civil war in man between passions and reason.
If there were only reason without passions.
If there were only passions without reason.
But since he has both he cannot be free from war, for he can only be at peace with the one if he is at war with the other.
Thus he is always torn by inner divisions and contradictions.

November reading list

59. The Big Short (ua), by Michael Lewis
60. NurtureShock (ua), by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
61. First Family (ua), by David Baldacci
62. Ironside (pb), by Holly Black
63. Kisser (ua), by Stuart Woods
64. Ford County (ua), by John Grisham

Pascal on Jesus' Teachings

Pensees 369:

"Jesus said great things so simply that he seems not to have thought about them at all, and yet so clearly that it is obvious how much he thought about them. Such clarity together with implicity is wonderful."